No Rain in Those Clouds. By David Smith. (Dent.. los.
6d.)
THE best part of this pleasant book concerns arable farming during the last quarter of the 19th century in a part of East Anglia famous for its strict attention to the rules of good husbandry. Reading these pages we are back in the days when women went stone- picking for a penny-farthing a bushel, when beer was brewed on the farm and was food as well as drink, and when cottagers looked to their gleanings for a good part of the winter's supply of bread. John Smith, the farmer whose story his son here set down, has a clear memory for all the farm details of those days ; but, in common with most old countrymen, he is inclined to become vague con- cerning the more recent years. No Rain in Those Clouds, there- fore, somewhat tails off as the years advance, and Mr. Smith's biOgrapher is obliged to fill in the story with rather haphazard anec- dotes of his own gathering: a chapter on local weather-lore, one on a typical Essex all-round farm-hand of the old style, another on an old horseman, and so on. Nevertheless, this is a readable book, full of interesting agricultural facts and details (mainly amusing) of bygone rural life. Throughout it is imbued with an attractive sense of humour. There are plentiful line drawings, but perhaps more is told in the small collection of old photographs which has been happily included.
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